Yesterday I got down to brewing business after a three week hiatus. I kegged Heat Wave straight from the primary (my first time skipping a secondary) and racked Pyatiletka (it's at 1.024 right now, about 8.1% ABV). I did all this while brewing up a single hop IPA utilizing my giant bag of Nugget hops.
The Recipe:
9 lb Maris Otter
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1
Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.
I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Heat Wave Hefeweizen
On Saturday I brewed my first hefeweizen and 25th batch overall. I had to use my older, smaller mash tun as the new one is temporarily out of commission after Pyatiletka.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 20
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170-180° water.
O.G.: 1.044
Est. IBU: 21.9
Brewing was extremely uneventful -- just the way I like it. As the name suggests, we were experiencing a heat wave hereabouts when I brewed on Saturday, although we discovered later it was to be the tail-end of the heat. Still, I pitched pretty high (73°, probably higher than I should have) and the temperature in the fermenter quickly ramped up to the low-mid 80s once fermentation began in earnest.
The blow-off airlock fluid had a distinctly banana-ey aroma to it, so I have high hopes for this one. I think I'll just let it run a week each in primary and secondary and then keg it quickly. I want to be able to enjoy it in the heat.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 20
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170-180° water.
O.G.: 1.044
Est. IBU: 21.9
Brewing was extremely uneventful -- just the way I like it. As the name suggests, we were experiencing a heat wave hereabouts when I brewed on Saturday, although we discovered later it was to be the tail-end of the heat. Still, I pitched pretty high (73°, probably higher than I should have) and the temperature in the fermenter quickly ramped up to the low-mid 80s once fermentation began in earnest.
The blow-off airlock fluid had a distinctly banana-ey aroma to it, so I have high hopes for this one. I think I'll just let it run a week each in primary and secondary and then keg it quickly. I want to be able to enjoy it in the heat.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Pyatiletka Stout
Yesterday morning I brewed up my first Russian Imperial Stout, dubbed Pyatiletka Stout. It turned out to be a very eventful brewday, which is rarely a good thing. I'll consider it a day of hard-won wisdom.
The Recipe:
16 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb flaked barley
2 lb chocolate malt
12 oz black patent malt
8 oz black barley
16 AAU (34g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale (w/starter)
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 23.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170° water.
O.G.: 1.086
Est. IBU: 52.7
Things were going swimmingly right up until the sparge/wort collection phase. My intent was to implement the same caramelization of the first runnings which I first did for #22, which helps me collect more wort overall and contributes to obtaining a high mash efficiency for big beers. And then things went terribly wrong: my new mash tun has a plastic valve to which a hose can be attached to eliminate splashing when collecting the wort. However, the hole in the tun is plugged by a stopper into which the valve is pushed; so, when I went to attach the hose, I pushed the stopper into the MLT and unleashed an unimpeded flow of wort onto myself, the floor, the kettle; basically everywhere. After much jockeying and creating more of a mess, I got the MLT perched precariously on top of my sanitation/bottling bucket so that collection could resume (luckily, the mash was rather tight so the liquid began flowing much more slowly). Unfortunately, this pretty much destroyed my caramelization plan and left a fair bit of the sweetest first runnings on the floor. Both of these resulted in my getting an abysmal 62% efficiency; I compensated for this a little bit by collecting an extra quart of wort (27 as opposed to the normal 26) and boiling it a bit longer at the beginning to drive off water.
The next mishap was after I finished collecting the wort. I always take a sample right after wort collection which I then chill to 60° and take a gravity reading to estimate my brewhouse efficiency. So, I grabbed my hydrometer, held it up to make sure the tiny weights inside were even (so the hydrometer will float plumb), and proceeded to then drop the hydrometer on the floor and break it in half. At this point, the beer is bubbling and I've just added the bittering hops and started the 60 minute timer. So I throw on some shoes without socks and bolt out the door to drive up to my LHBS and buy a new hydrometer. It was hairy there for a bit, but I got back in time to put in the wort chiller at 15 in order to sanitize. I ended up buying 2 hydrometers so that I could have one in reserve; the new ones are nice, but a bit too tall for my sampling vessel, so measuring below about 1.006 or so results in the hydrometer just resting on the bottom. Uff da.
But that's not all! The rest of the boil, the chilling and the addition to the fermenting carboy all went well. I pitched a little over a pint of yeast starter (which, incidentally, I didn't really give enough time to mature so I thought there might be too little active yeast for the 1.086 OG) and put it in a corner to go. This would have been around noon, and by 10 PM there was still very little yeast activity. Fast forward to this morning, when I walk out into the kitchen to discover a stream of beer stretching 3 or 4 feet out into the kitchen dining area leading back to my blow-off receptacle, which is entirely full of beer and foam and is still burbling quite enthusiastically. So, I have a big mess but a highly successful initial fermentation! Yay!
So, Pyatiletka broke two pieces of equipment and caused two moderately large messes in my kitchen. I've learned a lot of lessons and next time I will plan* a little bit better.
* Do you like my hackneyed bilingual puns?
The Recipe:
16 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb flaked barley
2 lb chocolate malt
12 oz black patent malt
8 oz black barley
16 AAU (34g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale (w/starter)
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 23.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170° water.
O.G.: 1.086
Est. IBU: 52.7
Things were going swimmingly right up until the sparge/wort collection phase. My intent was to implement the same caramelization of the first runnings which I first did for #22, which helps me collect more wort overall and contributes to obtaining a high mash efficiency for big beers. And then things went terribly wrong: my new mash tun has a plastic valve to which a hose can be attached to eliminate splashing when collecting the wort. However, the hole in the tun is plugged by a stopper into which the valve is pushed; so, when I went to attach the hose, I pushed the stopper into the MLT and unleashed an unimpeded flow of wort onto myself, the floor, the kettle; basically everywhere. After much jockeying and creating more of a mess, I got the MLT perched precariously on top of my sanitation/bottling bucket so that collection could resume (luckily, the mash was rather tight so the liquid began flowing much more slowly). Unfortunately, this pretty much destroyed my caramelization plan and left a fair bit of the sweetest first runnings on the floor. Both of these resulted in my getting an abysmal 62% efficiency; I compensated for this a little bit by collecting an extra quart of wort (27 as opposed to the normal 26) and boiling it a bit longer at the beginning to drive off water.
The next mishap was after I finished collecting the wort. I always take a sample right after wort collection which I then chill to 60° and take a gravity reading to estimate my brewhouse efficiency. So, I grabbed my hydrometer, held it up to make sure the tiny weights inside were even (so the hydrometer will float plumb), and proceeded to then drop the hydrometer on the floor and break it in half. At this point, the beer is bubbling and I've just added the bittering hops and started the 60 minute timer. So I throw on some shoes without socks and bolt out the door to drive up to my LHBS and buy a new hydrometer. It was hairy there for a bit, but I got back in time to put in the wort chiller at 15 in order to sanitize. I ended up buying 2 hydrometers so that I could have one in reserve; the new ones are nice, but a bit too tall for my sampling vessel, so measuring below about 1.006 or so results in the hydrometer just resting on the bottom. Uff da.
But that's not all! The rest of the boil, the chilling and the addition to the fermenting carboy all went well. I pitched a little over a pint of yeast starter (which, incidentally, I didn't really give enough time to mature so I thought there might be too little active yeast for the 1.086 OG) and put it in a corner to go. This would have been around noon, and by 10 PM there was still very little yeast activity. Fast forward to this morning, when I walk out into the kitchen to discover a stream of beer stretching 3 or 4 feet out into the kitchen dining area leading back to my blow-off receptacle, which is entirely full of beer and foam and is still burbling quite enthusiastically. So, I have a big mess but a highly successful initial fermentation! Yay!
So, Pyatiletka broke two pieces of equipment and caused two moderately large messes in my kitchen. I've learned a lot of lessons and next time I will plan* a little bit better.
* Do you like my hackneyed bilingual puns?
Friday, July 2, 2010
Exciting Times Ahead!
Today, I picked up 4.5 lbs of sweet, fresh (i.e., in season; i.e., cheap) Bing cherries which I intend to use in brewing a fruited version of Brevity Wit. I'm not sure exactly how many cherries I'll use, but I have a feeling I'm just going to throw them all in. I've put them straight into the freezer; ideally, the freezing process will break some of the cell walls so that the juices will be released when I add them to the secondary. Also, this means I don't need to make Brevity Wit #3 right away; I can take my time. I'm thinking of calling it Cherry Brevity. My originality is palpable.
Tomorrow I'll be brewing up my first Russian Imperial Stout in the morning and having a barbecue in the afternoon wherein I'll serve Backbreaker Wee Heavy for the first time. I'm sort of considering sampling it tonight to see if it is ready, but it's not chilled or anything. If it's not ready, I still have 6 other kegs of homebrew ready for service.
Tomorrow I'll be brewing up my first Russian Imperial Stout in the morning and having a barbecue in the afternoon wherein I'll serve Backbreaker Wee Heavy for the first time. I'm sort of considering sampling it tonight to see if it is ready, but it's not chilled or anything. If it's not ready, I still have 6 other kegs of homebrew ready for service.
Monday, June 28, 2010
One Big Beer
The Friday before last, before going on vacation, I kegged Backbreaker Wee Heavy. It finished at 1.030, so it's 9.3% and has rather a thick body. It may require some time to mature, but I might get a sample of it in the next few days to see how it's coming.
One thing that disappoints me is that I've done no brewing in June. I've got 3 more days to maybe whip up a batch after work so I can get one in this month. Hmm.
One thing that disappoints me is that I've done no brewing in June. I've got 3 more days to maybe whip up a batch after work so I can get one in this month. Hmm.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
In Through the Out Door
Actually, it was out-through-the-in-door that was more of a problem. So, to my band's Cinco de Junio gathering this year, I brought my kegs of Not-So-Imperial IPA and American Stout (nos. 19 & 20). I only have one tap, so we were switching back and forth between kegs so that people could get what they wanted (both were received pretty well, too).
Anyway, after three or four switches, I accidentally put the tap connector onto the gas-in post and the gas connector on the beer-out post of #19. As it turns out, these posts are slightly different in design, and the tap connector simply would not come off of the beer-out post. On Sunday I had an emergency beer-drinking session to finish off what was left of 19 and yesterday I took a hammer, vice grips and Dremel to the tap connector to finally remove it, destroying it in the process. I have procured a new beer-out quick-release connector for my picnic tap and a new gas-in post for the keg, as the old one got pretty hashed up in the process.
June is turning out to be a pretty low-brewing-activity month. My next two weekends are shot because of the lake, so I shan't be brewing then. Perhaps I should try to get a session in sometime this week after work? Hmm.
Oh, and in other news, I have now been brewing for a year. On June 7 of last year, I brewed up my first batch. I kind of want to do Blackacre Butte again, one year on.
Anyway, after three or four switches, I accidentally put the tap connector onto the gas-in post and the gas connector on the beer-out post of #19. As it turns out, these posts are slightly different in design, and the tap connector simply would not come off of the beer-out post. On Sunday I had an emergency beer-drinking session to finish off what was left of 19 and yesterday I took a hammer, vice grips and Dremel to the tap connector to finally remove it, destroying it in the process. I have procured a new beer-out quick-release connector for my picnic tap and a new gas-in post for the keg, as the old one got pretty hashed up in the process.
June is turning out to be a pretty low-brewing-activity month. My next two weekends are shot because of the lake, so I shan't be brewing then. Perhaps I should try to get a session in sometime this week after work? Hmm.
Oh, and in other news, I have now been brewing for a year. On June 7 of last year, I brewed up my first batch. I kind of want to do Blackacre Butte again, one year on.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Keg Knowledge
Yesterday I kegged up 24 Hour Mild for the 24-24-24 challenge coming up tomorrow. It finished at 1.003, or about 3.3% ABV. Nice and light in alcohol and relatively dark and flavorful; I'm looking forward to drinking a bunch of it.
On Wednesday I went to a local welding supply store and exchanged my CO2 tank for a fresh one, since I didn't know how much life my old tank had left. The regulator wasn't into the red "empty" range, but it was out of the green "full" range and I didn't want to risk losing pressure in the middle of the event. I'm pretty happy with how much use I got out of the old one: 3 kegs carbonated and fully dispensed, with 5 other kegs carbonated and partially dispensed. It should be noted that that CO2 tank was a little over half full when I bought it, so I'm thinking I'll get plenty of use out of this new full tank. The tank exchange is a little under $14, so if I get 10 kegs carbed and 5 dispensed, that's only about a dollar per operation. It's totally worth a buck to avoid bottling.
In preparation for kegging 24 Hour, I fully took apart and cleaned the keg I was going to use. I disassembled the posts, replaced the internal O-rings and inspected and washed the poppets, dip tubes and posts themselves. This was a valuable learning experience; the out-post on my keg of Ol' Smokey is somewhat leaky when the pressure is too high, and now I know how to find and replace the poppet. They're about $4.50 it seems, so I might buy a couple in order to have extras around just in case.
On Wednesday I went to a local welding supply store and exchanged my CO2 tank for a fresh one, since I didn't know how much life my old tank had left. The regulator wasn't into the red "empty" range, but it was out of the green "full" range and I didn't want to risk losing pressure in the middle of the event. I'm pretty happy with how much use I got out of the old one: 3 kegs carbonated and fully dispensed, with 5 other kegs carbonated and partially dispensed. It should be noted that that CO2 tank was a little over half full when I bought it, so I'm thinking I'll get plenty of use out of this new full tank. The tank exchange is a little under $14, so if I get 10 kegs carbed and 5 dispensed, that's only about a dollar per operation. It's totally worth a buck to avoid bottling.
In preparation for kegging 24 Hour, I fully took apart and cleaned the keg I was going to use. I disassembled the posts, replaced the internal O-rings and inspected and washed the poppets, dip tubes and posts themselves. This was a valuable learning experience; the out-post on my keg of Ol' Smokey is somewhat leaky when the pressure is too high, and now I know how to find and replace the poppet. They're about $4.50 it seems, so I might buy a couple in order to have extras around just in case.
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